Thursday, August 10, 2017

Daghestan Continues ‘Resettling’ of the Lak Nation

Paul
Goble

Staunton, August 9 – Twenty-five
years ago, the government of Daghestan began to move the members of the Lak
nation from their historical homelands to other locations, a process within that
North Caucasus republic that continues to this day and that eerily echoes in a soft way the
more horrific deportations of Stalin’s time.

The Laks, who number more than
160,000, are followers of Sunni Islam and have traditionally lived in isolated
mountain fastnesses. Although they are commonly thought to be the first
Daghestani people to have created feudalism, they continue to rely on the most
ancient forms of animal husbandry.

In the name of “improving” their
lives, the central authorities have sought to move them into the valleys, a
process that the Laks have resisted not only because it takes them away from
the lands of their ancestors but also because it means that they will be mixed
together with other ethnic groups and quite likely subject to assimilation.

Speaking to that session, Deputy
Prime Minister Rayudin Yusufov provided clear evidence that the resettlement program
has not won the support of the Laks and is not being sufficiently well-funded
or developed by the republic authorities.

“We have to
resettle more than 13,000 people, having created for them all the necessary
conditions for existence,” Yusufov said.There needs to be schools, roads, hospitals, cultural institutions and
other infrastructure. Part of this has been built, but in many places, key
structures are not yet in place.

Among the
statistics he gave showing how far the republic still has to go to realize the
25-year-old project, more than 660 additional homes must be constructed, more
than a quarter more than have already been built. He gave no dates for the
completion of these projects but insisted that “the resettlement of the Laks”
go ahead anyway.